[Reader-list] Basant:Sky Without frontiers: The Kite soars..above mullahs/pundits

[Lehar ..]

where have all the kites gone..from Delhi, the city of
phoolwallahs, 
kitemakers and djinns?

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Dear friends
>
>As part of our ongoing Basant festival, we have a
screening of the 
>following films on 7th Feb (Friday) at Ghalib Academy
(near dargah 
>Nizamuddin) at Delhi, from 2:30 pm. >Yahoo! Mail Plus
- Powerful. 
>Affordable.
Mela Basant Bahar: Sky Without frontiers, a film about
Basant in Lahore
by Samina Aslam
info on: www.cc-india.org

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--

Sky Without frontiers: Mela Basant Bahar in Lahore

The sight of a whole city caught up in a `Basant'
frenzy startles an Indian 
ignorant of customs and traditions in Pakistan, says
C. RAMMANOHAR REDDY.

Qoute:
-We in Lahore have over the years taken to Basant and
kite-flying," said an 
elderly Lahori, "while for some reason Amritsar has
given it up," referring 
to the rather lukewarm celebration of Basant in our
Indian Punjab. Basant 
does not belong to the Hindus or the Muslims. "It is a
festival of Punjab. 
You in India may not be too excited by Basant. But for
us in Lahore it has 
become a passion."
-

YOU wouldn't think that a public festival in Lahore
goes by the name Basant. 
A Hindu name for a public holiday in Pakistan? One
which falls on the same 
day as Basant Panchami in India? Yes it is. Basant is
one of the biggest 
festivals on the Lahori's calendar; a mammoth social
occasion that does not 
revolve around a religious ritual but around putting
thousands of kites into 
the sky. The sight of a whole city caught up in a
"Basant" frenzy startles 
an Indian ignorant of customs and traditions in
Pakistan.

The inevitable question on the mind of a visitor from
India is how have the 
Lahoris taken to an event whose name suggests that it
is a Hindu festival, 
even if there are no religious rituals to accompany
it. The answers you hear 
are interesting. Some see the public embrace of a
secular Basant as a way of 
striking back at the fundamentalists who want to
constrain their lives. Some 
say that during the Zia years of the 1980s there was a
stifling of 
celebrations as it was labelled "a Hindu" festival.

Even later, Nawaz Sharif, who was beholden to the
religious right, was less 
than open about his visiting social events on Basant.
The near frenetic 
celebrations of Basant today are seen as a reaction to
past controls. And 
yet others perhaps rightly tell a visitor from India
that Basant does not 
belong to the Hindus or the Muslims. "It is a festival
of Punjab. You in 
India may not be too excited by Basant. But for us in
Lahore it has become a 
passion."


"We in Lahore have over the years taken to Basant and
kite-flying," said an 
elderly Lahori, "while for some reason Amritsar has
given it up," referring 
to the rather lukewarm celebration of Basant in our
Punjab. Lahore's Basant 
is such a social event that it attracts people from
the rest of Punjab. The 
popularity of this Lahori festival has grown so much
that other cities in 
Pakistan too have started to organise their own
versions, "copy-cat" Basants 
as a parochial Lahori will tell you.

For the wealthier Lahori, Basant is not just about
flying kites. It is also 
a time to get together, to host family and friends and
to celebrate with a 
lavish meal. The growing popularity of Basant has
naturally meant the entry 
of corporate hospitality. Companies host their guests
on Basant even by 
"renting" roof-tops in the walled city at exorbitant
rates for just the 
evening.

Ahmedabad has its kite flying ritual in January on
Makar Shankranthi. Other 
Indian cities and states too have their annual
seasons, if not particular 
days, in which kite-flying is a big event. But none is
likely to match the 
scale and fervour of Lahore on Basant day.

Like in North India, Basant in Pakistan's Punjab is a
spring festival. It 
heralds both the approach of the harvest and the end
of winter. This year 
the festival was celebrated on February 17, but Lahore
began its party the 
night before in the walled city. The real celebrations
took place the next 
day. The Lahoris' involvement in Basant is like our
involvement in 
Deepavali. The big difference is that in Lahore's
Basant, kites replace 
crackers. From the morning onwards, the roofs of
Lahore were full of young 
and old keeping their kites afloat. By early
afternoon, the sky was peppered 
with kites of different colours. They come in
different sizes as well — some 
have to be transported on the roofs of cars, others
are small enough to be 
carried on bicycles. Yellow is the predominant colour.
"This is the colour 
of the mustard ripening in the field," says a gracious
Lahori host, as he 
drapes a yellow dupatta on the shoulders of each
visitor. The fun of Basant 
does not preclude the intense competition that is a
uniquely south Asian 
phenomenon — cutting each other's kite lines.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mag/2002/03/17/stories/2002031700160200.htm

--
BASANT - 'A sky without frontiers'
- the Spring Festival of Kites
http://www.the-south-asian.com/March2002/Basant_the_kite_festival_of_south_Asia_2.htm
--
http://www.nrilinks.com/NRINews/EN1154.htm
Samina Aslam's Mela Basant Bahar dispels the notion
being spread by Muslim 
fundamentalist groups that kite flying is a Hindu
ritual.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
I have learned so much from God
That I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu,
a Muslim, a Buddhist, 
a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself with me
That I can no longer call myself a man, a woman, an
angel..
Love has befriended me.
It has turned to ash and freed me
Of every concept and image my mind has ever known.

- Hafiz, Persian Sufi

Organised religion is the prop of a man who has not
found his Self/ God 
within.
- Shaheed Bhagat Singh







>From: Yousuf <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com>
>>Subject: [schoolworkshop] Screening of films on
Basant, Kite-flying and 
>>Amir Khusrau
>Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 20:34:01 -0800 (PST)
>
>
>

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